


Like Real People Do

by O U K E (OUKE)



Category: League of Legends RPF
Genre: Feelings Realization, Hurt/Comfort, Insomnia, M/M, i hate you but in a romantic way, past nememade, theyre both anxious af
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-08
Updated: 2021-03-08
Packaged: 2021-03-14 05:14:03
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,662
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29911938
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/OUKE/pseuds/O%20U%20K%20E
Summary: Comfort leads to a silent agreement between Elias and Oskar but, after a guilty thought, the latter decides to break it.
Relationships: Oskar "Selfmade" Boderek/Elias "Upset" Lipp
Comments: 3
Kudos: 23





	Like Real People Do

**Author's Note:**

> Hey, I’m bringing you another Hozier songfic, this one based on “Like Real People Do”. There’s not much written about these two so this fic was mainly to explore their dynamic. Ty Axel and Justyna for the beta reading B)  
> Comments and feedback always appreciated, hope you enjoy this one-shot <3

At first, Oskar addressed him by Upset.  
He did it even when the German stayed at the office without other teammates or cameras around. It was his ingame name, the professional way to interact with a new member of the association.   
He just never liked to get too close.   
The brunette preferred to stay quiet, stare from his seat in between games, and joke around a bit later.

All those formal boundaries fell during a spring night. 

That evening, the Berlin air was heavy and humid. It filled Oskar’s lungs as he numbly wandered on the gaming house hallways after some late-night solo queue. His short hair was as messy as it could get while being recently shaved, slightly ruffled from using his headset for long hours.  
While tiredly scratching the back of his stiff neck, he wondered whether to grab another bottle of water or go to bed and finally surrender to sleep.

Every train of thought stopped with the sight of a line of light outstanding in the pitch-black corridor. The white glow was coming from under one of the doors, therefore Oskar tried to remember their owners. On one side of the hallway, there were three unoccupied rooms. Those belonged to Yamato, Bwipo, and Hyli, who weren't even staying in the house.   
On the row in front of those, there was Nisqy’s room which was the closest to the kitchen. Judging by the complete darkness inside, Yasin was already asleep.   
Next to it, there was Oskar’s, which of course was empty.

Logically, the one with the lights on at the end of the hallway was Upset’s bedroom.

Why was he awake? Upset never stayed until that late.  
Awkwardly standing in front of the mysterious room, Oskar asked himself how to react:

“Maybe he’s just chilling… But what if he’s not okay? His room should be dim by now...” He thought.

Impulsive as he was, the Pole took a deep breath and burst the door open.  
He tried to step in but almost bumped his nose against a taller blonde man.   
Standing there, Upset had a hand hanging in the air, suggesting he was about to pull the handle himself.   
Relieved to see him, Oskar sighed as he tried to explain the sudden visit:

“Shit, man. What are you doing with the lights on at this time? I thought you were dead or something…”

But the volume of his words lowered as he observed the state in which his teammate was.   
The German was flushed and frowning, rubbing his teary eyes under his glasses with the back of his hand. While hearing Oskar talk, he closed his fist and choked a sob with lids shut.   
Then, when the shorter man fell silent, Upset realized he simply couldn’t attempt to stay calm anymore.   
Not around Oskar.  
The blonde stared helplessly from behind his golden frames, showing the most painful glance his sky-blue eyes could ever have. They seemed deeper, colder, and, mostly, desperate.  
And he just let Oskar look directly into them.   
The brunette swore he felt his heart breaking in two.

He didn’t know why Upset was crying, but it was almost as if his emotions floated in the air and reached Oskar’s chest too.   
The Pole was petrified by it, his own lip starting to tremble a bit.

And, before he could do anything with that sudden connection, the blonde fell in his arms.

The silence was soon full of muffled sobs and the friction of fabric provoked by Upset pressing his face against Oskar’s shoulder, slowly wetting his hoodie on tears.  
Intimidated by the closeness, Oskar parted his lips and hesitated for a second. But, now, he had no reason to hold back.

“Elias?” He mumbled the blonde's name while finally surrounding him in a tight embrace.

The name came straight up from his soul.  
It wasn’t even a question, only pure comfort. Oskar was there and wanted Elias to do so, calling for him to come back from wherever his mind had gone.

He never questioned his sadness nor what happened to him.  
Not asking about the past was their main unspoken rule, maybe because they were both guilty.

Of course, Oskar certainly had his reasons to be awake that night too.  
He never thought some faded polaroids and a smaller hoodie he found in his old travel backpack could make him suffer that much.   
A sweet hazelnut scent wandered around them.  
They still smelled like Tim.

I will not ask you where you came from  
I will not ask you, neither should you

The two of them were going through hard times but found peace together and, suddenly, everything became an excuse to come back again and again.

If Elias couldn’t open a window in the office, Oskar would frown and leave his stream to help.   
Oh, but inside he was so happy to be needed. 

“You have no IRL skills.” The Pole growled without admitting he was the first to get up when Elias struggled at everyday tasks.  
“Shut up and open it.” Elias insisted, hiding the fact he became clumsier only when Oskar was around.

Sometimes Nisqy would groan about how hungry he was and ask someone to get groceries.

“Ok, what do you want, Nesquik?” Oskar asked while getting ready to go to the store. His extroverted nature always pushed him out of the office.

While Yasin replied with a list of sweets and snacks, Elias took off his headset and stared at them interestedly.

“I’m coming too.” The blonde added, looking for his winter coat.

The city was lightly coated in a blanket of snow, almost desolated. Winter made the night come around earlier, and the cars had to turn their lights on. Like a bunch of fireflies, the fast traffic passed by the two men who walked together.  
Elias and Oskar were hooded and hid their identities under the overcoats, especially the latter who wore his usual black cap. The truth is that being unrecognizable and completely alone gave them an illusion of freedom.  
They felt as if the center of the world was where his hands accidentally touched while grabbing the grocery bags, making their heartbeats clumsily rush. Almost as if they were born to look at each other and laugh without having to say anything.   
And for some reason, seeing white clouds coming out of their mouths and their noses become pink made them feel softer inside.

During that walk, Elias discovered it was possible to smile tenderly with only your eyes.   
He saw Oskar doing it to him.

It made his face feel hotter while his stomach did a specific funny flip.   
That was the same sensation he experienced when they had play fights.   
They would roast each other until one angrily jumped on top. Gripping clothes and yelling, they consistently ended up in the same situation: Sometimes against a wall or on top of the chess table, but always being too close, panting, and breathlessly chuckling.   
After finishing the lighthearted brawl, Elias would rest his face on Oskar’s chest for a second.  
Only a second.  
But a single second wasn’t enough. 

When they pulled apart, his mind bitterly wandered around a single word:

“Stay.”

But staying was a new concept for both of them.   
Consistency wasn’t something that went along with their lifestyle at all. Every day they woke up in sheets of a new hotel bed, surrounded by different teammates, in another competition on the other side of the world.   
Sometimes they forgot the faces of their friends. Others, didn’t know what “Home” meant anymore.  
The only secured factor was the sweat covering their foreheads, constant ache on their fingers, and daily paralyzing back pains.   
So, like a feather on the wind, people just swept away from their sides.  
Who would understand their rushed pace?   
Are there any feet used to that energetic, non-stop dance?

And, in a desperate attempt to pause, they found a new habit.  
Important matches were around the corner, making them feel as if the ground shook under their feet. Insecurity made the wood planks threaten to swallow them and, sometimes they wished it did. Being underground was often more welcoming than on their beds, which were full of nightmares and sandpaper sheets  
In those times, the men got used to distract themselves together.   
No one could tell them to go back to practice, compare to other teams, or criticize even how they blinked.  
Under the moonlight, they were free.   
The office was empty except for the men facing on two of the gaming chairs. Oskar stole energy drinks from some mini-fridge and Elias sneakily brought a whole coffee pot from the kitchen. The latter used to pour the black liquid in a mug, always sitting with knees pulled to his chest and colorful socks matching his childish laugh.   
It was an attempt to regain the control they had lost over their lives.

Every second of oversleeping the next morning or with their eyelids heavy during scrims was worth it.

But with taking a break, came silence and with silence came thinking.

I had a thought, dear  
However scary  
About that night  
The bugs and the dirt  
Why were you digging?  
What did you bury  
Before those hands pulled me  
From the earth?

Most of the time, Elias was in the office.

“I’m just practicing.” He said.

But when someone caught him off guard, he had that same sad stare of the first night when he broke down in Oskar’s arms.  
Fidgeting with his hair, he observed the painting above his desk. The sharp and perfect lines of the orange paint stabbed his ribs. His biggest rival made them, almost as a constant reminder of the weight on Elias’s shoulders. 

And with time, that unsure aura surrounded him when looking at Oskar too. 

Oskar had never doubted their “No questions” policy until he realized there was a new possibility. He respected Elias’s privacy, however:

“What if I’m the one making him suffer?” He bitterly thought.

The Pole knew he could come up as rude or harsh to some. He acknowledged that goddamn well.   
Guilt.  
It was pure regret based on how his throat closed and his body fizzed with paranoia. Anxiety took over when he tried to joke, but his words sounded sour, almost like spitting venom. He grew used to roll with it, calling it a toxic persona, but sometimes it burned his chest so bad.  
Therefore, that silent agreement was a double-edged sword.  
He didn’t know if Elias’s pain originated back in the past or as an unintentional consequence of his comments. If it happened to be the latter, then his responsibility was to fix it.

Not too long after realizing that worry, Oskar found the opportunity to bring it up.

The sun was going down, creating a sky made of pink and purple clouds as the Pole walked out of the office.   
The concrete staircase decided the limit between Selfmade and Oskar. Heading to his hotel in the Berlin streets, the transition from player to passerby was already done.  
Everything was going as usual: Wake up, go to the office, play, eat, walk back and sleep.  
But his routine was flipped upside down by the sound of a car honking beside him.

“Hey!” One of the tinted windows rolled down, and the driver popped up. It was Elias yelling over the music roaring from the speakers. “Get in, handsome!”

Soon, Oskar found himself on the passenger seat of a car that still smelled new. The shiny black leather squeaked as he shifted his weight in it.

“You can be a pain in the ass sometimes. You know that?” He mentioned loud enough for his words to not get lost in the blasting of 2010’s songs.

In answer, Elias just turned his head at him and started a karaoke that would make their throats numb by the end of the ride.  
Half an hour later, the vehicle had stopped in a drive-through. The wheels had finally ceased their spins, resting on a parking lot as the men opened paper bags with their dinner inside them.

“I should be the driver of the team.” Elias cockily declared while cleaning himself with napkins after finishing his food.   
“You just got your driver’s license, dude. I don’t wanna die because of your dumb ass crashing against a wall.” Oskar scrolled through different radio stations, eventually finding chill songs to rest from the blonde’s wild playlist.  
“Ughh… L9” Elias groaned in a joking manner. “Why are you so toxic?”

And that reminded Oskar of the reason he was there.  
They had to talk.

“Elias?” His husky voice had a serious tone. Suddenly nervous, he fidgeted with the car radio and managed to lower the volume of a soft acoustic song.  
“Yeah?” The taller man replied, alarmed by the intense sound of his name.  
“The first night…” The Pole cleared his throat, looking up at him as the adrenaline bubbled in his body. “Was it something I said?”

Without glasses, Elias’s confused frown was a lot more noticeable.  
Trying to comprehend the question, he looked almost frozen at the moment, like a statue that made Oskar want to scream for a faster answer.  
But Elias’s face was always speaking by itself.  
The moment of understanding was crystal clear: Exactly when his eyes widened and his lips let out a small sound.

“Oh.”

Elias giggled, covering his mouth like he always did, and finally said something:

“That? No, it wasn’t because of you.”

I knew that look dear  
Eyes always seeking  
Was there in someone  
That dug long ago  
So I will not ask you  
Why you were creeping  
In some sad way I already know

And, now, everything made sense.   
It was anxiety, uncertainty, fear of the future.  
Elias was afraid of what could happen when the world was staring at him. What if he failed when the future of the team was on his hands?  
But why did he stare at Oskar like that too? Was there something he needed to know from him?   
A confirmation?

“Thank god, you fucker.” Oskar’s shoulders relaxed as he sighed, letting out all the accumulated tension.  
“What? Were you actually worried, baby?” Elias teased with a smug smile.  
“Your baby? That’s Hyli.” The Pole crossed his arms and looked outside the window, trying to ignore the heat growing in his ears after the pet name.  
“Are you jealous?” Between chuckles, Elias purred the words while pulling Oskar from the shoulder and forcing him to turn around.

Frowning, he revealed flushed cheeks and an almost unnoticeable pout.  
His usually icy eyes had melted only from the German’s influence, looking down like the first time they hugged after a game.

“Just- Look at your face!” Elias couldn’t believe the vulnerable state in which the other man was. Giggling was the best he could do to let out all the butterflies he felt fluttering inside.

But Oskar couldn’t handle being helpless.  
So, Elias’s laughs were interrupted by a pair of lips pressing against his. 

The blonde froze, feeling fire growing in his chest and a hand resting on his thigh, touching warm skin through ripped jeans.   
Elias had just gotten the confirmation he wanted.   
Soon, the surprise became tenderness, and he replied to the kiss while cupping the other’s cheek. It was softer than expected, only interrupted by a recently shaved beard.  
For how long have they been waiting for this? 

Yet, Oskar suddenly separated.

“What happened?” Elias stared confused and longing for more, almost like he had just woken up from a good dream.

Oskar stretched his lips in a twisted grin of his and replied:

“Nothing, I just wanted to see your face now.”

Elias rolled his eyes and grabbed him by the back of the neck, pulling him in again.   
And, now, they were feeling their cocky smiles closer than ever.

Honey just put your sweet lips on my lips  
We should just kiss like real people do.


End file.
